Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference
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Pain assessment in patients who are unable to verbally communicate with medical staff is a challenging problem in patient critical care. The fundamental limitations in sedation and pain assessment in the intensive care unit (ICU) stem from subjective assessment criteria, rather than quantifiable, measurable data for ICU sedation and analgesia. ⋯ Recent advancements in pattern recognition techniques using a relevance vector machine algorithm can assist medical staff in assessing sedation and pain by constantly monitoring the patient and providing the clinician with quantifiable data for ICU sedation. In this paper, we show that the pain intensity assessment given by a computer classifier has a strong correlation with the pain intensity assessed by expert and non-expert human examiners.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2009
System to improve AED resuscitation using interactive CPR coaching.
A positive impact on cardiac arrest survival has been demonstrated with the substantial reduction in time to defibrillation provided by the widespread deployment of automated external defibrillators (AEDs). However, recent studies have identified the importance of performing chest compressions before defibrillation in facilitating effective recovery from long duration ventricular fibrillation (VF). Despite the importance of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), effective performance of it in the field is hampered by many problems including the dependence on rescuer technique, which is known to be variable even with trained professionals. ⋯ In general using any type of coaching provided improvements in all of the CPR performance measures excluding chest recoil where there was a slight decrease in performance. The statistical results also indicated that the audio/visual coaching conditions provided a more effective coaching condition with respect to chest compression rate. Most notably, the feedback conditions both provided a statistically significant or trends toward improving chest compression effectiveness and produced superior performance as a whole.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2009
Scaling exponents of EEG are related to the temporal process of the therapeutic hypothermia following ischemic brain injury.
Several markers based on quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) analysis have been associated with the neuroprotective effects of therapeutic hypothermia on hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) after cardiac arrest (CA). Nevertheless, the makers by far have not been linked to the temporal process of the ischemic neuronal death. ⋯ While the short-term scaling exponent in theta band (i.e. gamma(1)(theta)) and the long-term scaling exponent in alpha band (i.e. gamma(2)(alpha)) were correlated with the delayed neuronal death after CA. Our preliminary results showed that the long-range correlations in theta and alpha bands could be related the detail temporal process of therapeutic hypothermia.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2009
Comparative StudyStatic forces variation and pressure distribution in laryngoscopy performed by straight and curved blades.
A theoretical analysis of the forces acting on the laryngoscope during the lifting of the epiglottis is carried out by applying the basic principles of statics. The static model of a laryngoscope equipped with a straight and a curved blade and the forces variation, as a function of the introduction angle and of tissue reaction application point, are described. The pharyngeal tissues and epiglottis pressure distribution on the blade is obtained, with a 1mm(2) resolution, by measurements performed in-vitro on a simulation mannequin, using straight and curved blades. ⋯ Average intensity of the tissue reaction has been found in the order of 32+/-11 N. Pressure distribution is maximally concentrated on the tip of curved blades (0.5 MPa on 5mm axial length), whereas it is more dispersed on straight blades (0.2 MPa on 10mm axial length). The inclination of the handle also influences the effort of the operator: for both blades, from 0 rad to 1.57 rad, the lifting force shows a total variation of about 13% of the top value, the transversal forces vary less than 6% of the top value.
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Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc · Jan 2009
Real-time estimation of the ECG-derived respiration (EDR) signal using a new algorithm for baseline wander noise removal.
Numerous methods have been reported for deriving respiratory information such as respiratory rate from the electrocardiogram (ECG). In this paper the authors present a real-time algorithm for estimation and removal of baseline wander (BW) noise and obtaining the ECG-derived respiration (EDR) signal for estimation of a patient's respiratory rate. This algorithm utilizes a real-time "T-P knot" baseline wander removal technique which is based on the repetitive backward subtraction of the estimated baseline from the ECG signal. ⋯ Test data from patients were chosen with particularly large baseline wander components to ensure the reliability of the algorithm under adverse ECG recording conditions. The algorithm yielded EDR signals with a respiration rate of 4.4 breaths/min. for Fantasia patient record f2y10 and 10.1 breaths/min. for Fantasia patient record f2y06. These were in good agreement with the simultaneously recorded respiration data provided in the Fantasia database thus confirming the efficacy of the algorithm.